Kevin Gerard Barry was the first Republican to be executed since the leaders of the Easter Rising. He was sentenced to death for taking part in an IRA operation which killed three British soldiers. The execution of Barry outraged public opinion in Ireland and throughout the world because of his age (Barry was 18 when he was executed).

Terence MacSwiney became Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. Arrested for sedition, he was imprisoned in Brixton prison in England. MacSwiney went on hunger strike in prison, and after 74 days of refusing any food, he died. His death brought the Irish struggle recognition around the world.

The Igoe Gang (the Identification Branch of the Combined Intelligence Service) known as the Igoe Gang after their leader Head Constable Eugene Igoe, was a group of intelligence operatives whose aim was to combat the IRA. The group consisted of Royal Irish Constabulary men from different parts of Ireland, who patrolled the streets of Dublin in plain clothes looking for wanted men.